The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1887-03-02
HENRY /. BIOSSiT, Business Manager

few feet in their rear handsome squad
of Amazons follow composed of their
wives and daughters, authorized by
custom to pass in review with
their fathers and husbands. When
the Governor places himself in
front of the troops the bands
strike up "God Save the Queen"
the soldiers present arms, the officers
make the military salute, and the spec
tators, uncovered, remain silent and
motionless. A battery placed 1900
feet above their heads at the sum-
nit of Nthe north side of the rock
fires salvo to which all of the interior
batteries respond. After various
evolutions the troops return to the city
and deposit their arms in their barracks,
when they are at liberty to spend the
rest of the day as they please. The
taverns are crowded, and the amount
of brandy swallowed is incalculable.
| lncalculable also the number of
"drunks" met with after dark on the
streets. For these there are special
provisions. Each of the posts in the
| city and on the rock is provided with a
kind of sentry-box, and when q red
coat too much under the influence of
drink passes in sight Of one of these
posts the officer or sub-officer calls two
of his men, who lay hold of him with
out violence and guide his staggering
steps to the box where he is allowed to
sleep off the fumes of his brandy until
morning. The next day there are dis
tributed some fines and sentences in
the guard-house, and then every thing
resumes its usual course. Brandy is
the weakness of the English, and it
greatly increases the mortality of the
garrison. All that succumb die of the
same disease, kind of cerebral fever
that the English call rock fever, but
that the natives correctly call brandy
fever.
Every thing on this rock partakes of
the military. One is awakened by the
sound of cannon each morning as soon
as the rising of the sun gives the signal
for the opening of the great gate. The
same cannon at sunset signals its clos
ing. These two tirings of a gun are
always regular, but they are not the
only ones that are heard in the course
of day OF night, for everything that
happens out of the usual course,
whether on the rock OF around the
rock, is signaled by a cannon. This
cannon, which became inevitably "a
companion of the existence of every
one living on the rock, is in battery
at the summit of the rock about the
middle of its length, at the foot of a
mast from which flies a signal flag that
whenever the gun is fired, tells what it
is fired for. The most frequently it is
to warn the Spanish coast-guard out of
English waters. Sometimes it is fire
the signal indicates it's location.
Precautions are so well taken,
and the pumps so expeditiousiy
handled, that fire is very speedily
extinguished. Sometimes it is the
rock itself that burns. Though it is
bare, so to speak, a vegetation grows
in the spring that is soon parched by
the sun, for from April to November it
never rains in Gibraltar. Once or twice
during the summer this growth takes
fire-probably through the carelessness
of smokers. When this occurs the ex.
element is great, for the rock is scat.
tered over with powder magazines, and
water in large quantities, except at the
base of the rock, is hard to get. The
entire garrison is sometimes employed
in fighting these fires for forty-eigh
hours.
| Gibraltar, besides its garrison Of
1000, has $1,000 inhabitants. For &
fortress of such small extent this
population is embarrassing. The
civilians are everywhere sacrificed to
the military. In the village and on the
rock the best places are occupied by
barracks. Every thing that serve the
needs of defense, the health and com.
fort of the troops, is admirably looked
after. From top to bottom the rock is
furrowed with excellent roads, and in
the city the streets are marvellous
ly cleaned and well kept. The
sewerage system is perfect, and gas
and water abound everywhere. Blu
the civil population is shut up in a very
restricted space, most of the houses are
novels, whose existence is subject tx
the caprice of the military, for, above
all, nothing must interfere with thu
firing of the batteries. Not q new
building has been constructed fol
twenty years, for all the available lane
was built on long ago. These fifteel
thousand inhabitants, born on the rocl
and called by the English ''rock scor
| pions, are, according to law, subject:
of the British Government, as born OF
English soil. They have the right tt
live where they were born. No ont
can expel them, but everything is done
to fetter the development of the civi
population, and, above all, to proven
the formation of a foreign colony. 4
foreigner can enter Gibraltar only will
a permit valid for twenty-four hours
At the holders request it may be ex
tended three days, and he cal
not remain longer than that tim'
without a reliable guarantol
known to the military authorities
With such guarantor his permit ma.
be renewed every three months, the